Monday, 22 December 2014

Mebyon Kernow has today slammed the Coalition parties for back-tracking on their election promises about support for the Police.

At the last General Election, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged that they would protect policing and put more bobbies on the beat. But they have done the exact opposite and undermined policing with devastating funding cuts.

It is unbelievable that the Home Office has confirmed that police forces covering Cornwall, England and Wales will have their central government funding cut by almost 5% in the next financial year, which overall equates to a cash reduction of £299 million. This means that the Devon and Cornwall force will have £9 million less to spend in 2015/2016, which is top of the £50 million of cuts over the last four years.

The Coalition is failing communities the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. It is a disgrace that they have refused to action their election promises and have instead done terrible damage to those public services that local people depend upon.

At the last election, Conservative leaflets in the St Austell and Newquay seat stated: “It is dishonest to claim that we will cut police officer numbers. In fact, our plans to cut bureaucracy and red tape mean that there would be more police on the street, fighting crime and protecting local communities - shadow Home Secretary Nick Grayling.”

In their leaflets, the Liberal Democrats meanwhile stated: “Making the streets of Cornwall safe is a top priority for local people in Cornwall … the Lib Dems have said they would recruit 10,000 more police officers across the country – and an extra 223 officers on the streets of Devon and Cornwall.”